Arianna we are very excited about the authors who will be speaking here. Started, please silence your cell phones. We are filming and recording today and we prefer not to have any interruptions. We sure to use a microphone at the end of the event to ask questions. If you have not purchased a book and would like to do so, they are available at the register. After the event is over, there will be a signing line to the right of this table here. If you have been here before, you know we ask everyone to fold up their chairs after the event. Here with us tonight is dr. Damaris hill. Dr. Hill is an accomplished explores the work digital humanities. She has written the fluid boundaries of suffrage and jim crow. Dr. Hill is an assistant professor of africanamerican studies at the university of kentucky but she is here to talk to us about her most recent work , a bound woman is a dangerous thing. Dr. Hill honors the lives and suffering of africanamerican women heroes throughout history while providing artistic and site into their personalities. She delves into incarceration into the dehumanizing effects it has had on the women she talks about. A bound woman is a dangerous nylons listt into of most anticipated books for 2019. We are honored to have her here with us tonight so help me give a warm welcome to dr. Damaris hill. [applause] i want to thank everybody for coming out. It is treacherous outside and i am so impressed that you all are here. If i do not begin to read immediately, i will first and two flames because i am so into flamesurst because i am so anxious. What i would like to try for this reading is i would like everyone to close their eyes for a second and remind yourself that you are human. You make mistakes and you are forgiven. Violence is not a currency. Your culture, your tribe, and your people, and your family. Thank you. My grandmothers picture opens this book. I choose to honor her because of the jane crow oppression prevalent in her lifetime were careful to include violence and threats for accessing civil liberties. These oppression were rooted superiorityses of that can make one feel imprisoned. Jane crow oppression can insight mania, mental illness, fracture it wise womans intellect as they did with so many other black women in america. These forms are love letters. The opening of this book explores how i am found in a sense of beholden to others bound in a sense of beholden to others. I am in solidarity with the hurt and wounded like jenny a mcclelland, sandra bland like missa bland, freddie gray, Susie Jackson and miss ethel lantz, senator reverend clement dr. Inckney reverend Daniel Simmons senior. Garner,rner, eric tamir rice, walter scott, jonathan pharrell, philando castile, and others. The afflicted pray for healing just as the hungry pray for bread but when has god ever sent bread . And my recollection of the scriptures god has always sent of they recollection scriptures god has always sent a woman. A woman like mosess mother and the woman who raised him to be a deborah, whenlike has god ever sent bread . The poets need to study the reflects the historical lineage of resistance and my writersdy of readers such as phyllis wheatley, gwendolyn brooks, toni morrison, and inkind my work does not ignore the literary inheritances of other writers like walt whitman, ernest hemingway, and james baldwin. Awork is immersed in profoundly American Literary tradition, a tradition that explores the american tradition in dialogue with the ideas of democracy. History, i am older than i look. My white ancestors immigrated to this country in the 1780s. My african and indigenous answers ancestors were here before me. My mother and father wish for a son to unite them. I came woman, three and a half weeks late, breaking my mother in too many ways. She had into the energy to name me. I father is too lazy to be original. He scribbled my mothers name on the certificate and wrote his mothers name behind the mothers name. In these poems, the legacy of these womens lives chase me like a strong wind. This book is a love letter to women who have been denied or erased. Every time i call and name in this book, presume the person who bears the name is loved. If you are brave, imagine that woman congealing on my tongue, giving the name wrath and memory. Let these women dance among your days and in your nights, dream better lives. That was a portion from the preface. This book is a part memoir, part poetry so i will attempt to read a couple of poems. I will see how much time i actually have. What i have been thinking about doing for the readings is name of theling the women that are from the Geographic Area where i am standing. Since this is the maryland, virginia, d. C. Area today i am going to honor lucille clifton, Zora Neale Hurston, harriet woman, another unnamed that was imprisoned in the eastern state penitentiary in philadelphia, but she was actually from cambridge. I want to honor that women from this space because that is important to me. Lets begin with then echo poem from miss clifton, in the garden. And men,rden of marble i swivel slowly in. I am some clay faced janice. Did you know . These halls are prone to echo. God is dead, i get the walls are greedy for confessions. Your words mirror my truth. Forgive me, my voice is a tapestry trying to where the skin of your him. Lucille clifton is important because she is from this space but also because she was very generous to me. And i was very young and very brash when i was very young and very brash. I think her for this time and place. I thank her for this time and place. The poem is broke into seven groups and they are all multiple entendres on being bound. Being bound in terms of being fettered, imprisoned, being bound in terms of archival history, being bound like a hinge, and i talk like being bound as a word that we used to talk about springing forth into new directions. The first chapter in the book the entire book is dedicated to my ancestors, but the Second Chapter in the book, i focus on a piece of research or a book that kelly and gross, who is an answer kelly gross, who is an anthropological researcher, she did a wonderful book called colored amazons. When i finished her book, i could not stop scribbling poems. The Second Chapter in the book is very related to kelly grosss work. The chi am about to read to you, begin the poem i am about to read to you has to do with a woman who was who could racially past who could s but chose not to. Was she was in prison, she encouraged to pass so she could go into an insane asylum. Prison records describe the disorderly black female prisoner. Portray aords troubled white woman. That is from kelly grosss book. Melodym is titled bird blackbird melody. Rosaries stitch in my palms. I passed through easton, a yellow canary, my voice and ebony tongue, hail mary. Black soul in the middle of the psalms. My mothers bible songs, my lips carry her cello harmonies. Light skin cant hide what the heirs can hear lacey, a voice that steadies your quorums what the years can what the see, of voicely that steadies your qualms. A pair layered in cobblestones to be white, drafting drifting, each face it passes refuses to greet. Woman two, not a white nor do i weather. In darkness, i bruise a blue rose. Blooming between broke brick, i quiver. Frostbitten lips trail away my woes. Not a white woman, nor do i weather. In darkness, i rues a blue rose. I bruise a blue rose. Silence, no song. Beat me. Gag me, dead. Number four. Something has died there. Silence where song once lived. Iron cuffed, wrist, no heaven, no one forgives. Me, and ice water baptism wakes my soul for cassidy oncerden me to waltz wrong, turn right, whispering to me that life is better if the crazy and white. You solo dance the cracks between alabaster tile. You gleamed white all the while. Five, blackbird, oriole, you can do anything but singalong. She needs sisters, blocked winged melodies, the souls contraltos of dark angels. Am i going to make you guys really sad . I do that in class all the time. Sometimes i teach africanamerican studies, but what i really teach is a horrors in American History. [laughter] i sit there and talk to them and when it gets really bad i put a little inflection in my voice and say the home and watches stand up. Try to heal a little bit. The next poem is about Zora Neal Hurston. We all knows ora as being brash and outspoken zora as being brash and outspoken but some of us know about her being an anthropologist. She was equally brilliant at the sciences. What i have been thinking a lot about with this book into the women in this book is how historically we and the women in this book is how historically. E limit them we dont talk about all the ways they were dynamic. I thought a lot about Zora Neal Hurston. She is an inspiration to me. This poem talks about a younger zora. Ath zora being black and woman, she enters the field of anthropology, which is dominated at this time by eugenics sciences and a guy named Madison Grant who believes if you are have ahite, and you money, you are at the top of the evolutionary hierarchy and to someone like Zora Neal Hurston would be at the bottom of that hierarchy. A cocktails set at party in new york where Zora Neal Hurston gets to be a graduate student meeting him. You should know one other person in the poem ota benga. Froms a black man taken africa and used to live in the bronx zoo among the chimpanzees. You should know their lives overlapped. A bene the bronx zoo, ot a boarded a ship, flipping fish scale like a coin, the first shiny thing he had seen since his family was murdered. Leopolds soldier still carries the finger of ota benga pocket tor in his ward away people. Gritan forget the way ota his teeth. Zora reads about him caged in the zoo the same year his her mother becomes a ghost. Zora has a hard time keeping still. From baltimore to bard orange nearthe bronx, bernard ga haunts her. Ben mysteries draped and her palms. This odd chameleon. The cradles of hell always take the shape of a womans lips. Using a looking glass, Madison Grant traces zoras a square drop. When she whispers to him about and Spencer Square jaw. When she whispers to him about spencer, grants throat burns with curiosity. He considers this zora. Is she the prophecy of stones . The darkesthin sciences he conjures . K so lets go to this superhero right here. Harriet tubman. Spy, war nurse, soldier, freedom fighter, ship commander, john browns general tubman. Lets talk about that. And people are silly enough to believe she couldnt read. [laughter] right . That, harriet is holy. Ais poem is written in peculiar way because we know that craft and content go to way. This poem can be read in any direction and hope fully it will make sense. You i did that purposefully because you can never locate her. I felt a poem that would honor her would have the same continuity. I am going to read it twice in two different ways. Licka thumb, hold it to a thumb, hold it to the wind. What is it about water, women . Take me, tubman. ,aithful as eve, mother of cain her smile collection of springs. Between water, between women being no mysteries. I know of no man who stands waist deep in these crossings. , this womanfeet needs these sweet waters in her palms. Thousands call her mosys. Ask the stars call her mosys thousands call her moses. She be revolver and rescue. Ok. Let me get a little water before i do this the other way. I just read this left to right, up and down traditionally. Now i will read it up column, down column come up column. She be revolver and rescues with arms wide. Ask the stars. This woman needs mossi riverbeds. Needs mossy riverbeds. I know of no man, of stars and of springs, a daughter of eve. Tubman in taupe. Hold hands to the wind. Her in tow. Hold hands to the wind. Her face is as faithful as any mark. Water, woman, look at them lick a thumb. [applause] thanks. I like to play. You cant really tell right now, but i like to play. Particularly on the page. Let me look at my time. Ok. One poem of aread woman that is not from here but she is tied to hear. This is about Ruby Mccollum. She was a paramore. Paramore rights were post emancipation when usually an affluent white male in the a blacky would seek out woman to have a family with, but it did not matter what her choices were the family were because social and cultural restraints would just make her accessible. Ruby mccollum was a victim of who was a doctor and was later elected senator before she shot him. It is important to also say when welllk about her decision, gatt, the decision that resulted in his death well, yeah, the decision that resulted in his death, hsu was the mother thehree children she was mother of three children belonging to an affluent black man in the immunity. Her fourth child was dr. Adams child. In the prison, she miscarried another child who we also presume was after adams child. Is our neal hurston covered her case. That is why Zora Neal Hurston covered her case. That is why it matters. Likethis came up, she was when this came up, she was like girl, i got you. These women were not operating in silos. There were operating in solidarity before we had words for it. The pittsburgh carrier stopped paying her. Zora neal hurstons all about her money, which i love. A black woman black women are the foundation of that. Even those are neal hurston stopped covering the case even though Zora Neale Hurston stopped covering the case, she published a story in a major rubyt that related mccollums experiences. Im going to read Ruby Mccollum. B mccollum is from florida. It will Ruby Mccollum is from florida. They lie. Some say that ruby and her husband sam are black bonnie and clyde, but make no mention of her fine house with a pull into the ring of policeman swimming in her into sams pockets. Between alabama and into the gulf it is hard to keep anything out of a gators mouth. Some bandits are dirty as the devil, crawling into your yard reaching. Greedy bandits treat an empty window as an invitation. You find them fat and displayed, sultan kings crisscrossed. Closeeach, drawing you with spring paramore, threatening to tear any black man to pieces whispering paramore, threatening to tear any black man to pieces. Retreats. Never they run you ragged. Ever find yourself prostrate on dr. Adams the floor, dressed for church, praying for prescription or poison . Will be needed something to read her of the little rascal scratching inside rid her of the little rascal scratching her ofdaca who do rid the little rascal scratching inside . That is Ruby Mccollum. Lets see. I am going to give the crowd a choice. Mcclellan . D or janea sandra bland, ok. I must warn you. I usually have a hard time, but i will read it. The whole book is a hard time. It was a hard time reading it writing at. It was a hard time editing it it was a hard time writing it. It was a hard time editing it. The ancestors are pleased. The book went through three printings before it was released so the ancestors are pleased. Thank you so much for purchasing the book. T is in its fourth printing over 8500 copies are in the circulation right now and it is a poetry book. 500 inlly get about circulation, so thank you. Of choral refrain. Let me take some water. It could have been me. Three degrees creased into the front seats, bits of the constitution in my veins like braille, the declarations to to do inside my eyelids. Times did sally hemmens have to affirm the tiny ego of tom before he bears himself to his others, collecting their postings, forgiving his debts . It could have been me like saint it could have been me. Like sandy, i would have missed them dashes in the road. The ways i skirt around corners under the cover of sun, i fleeing an interview, happy to have some means, pockets fluffy with promises, it could have been me. Listening to gospel, the lilts in my throat, running at a marlboro fog above my lips. My car would be all clouds, a heaven shaved with blue and red lights. It could have been me. My eyebrows high, my voice low, questioning about his bidding, it could have been me. A black woman, the color of oklahoma clay. A police man pretending to be some cowboy. Sandy had been in texas but a day. How long had he been hunting for one like her . He had seen this scene in his mind. It was a means of forgetting the woman that refused to love him and the black man she clung to. In this vision, he is a rodeostyle hero. Sandy is a rogue rascal. He holds out his tongue to shout the shower of coins and praises. A black woman without a job owns her dignity. Did he fancy excuse me, did his fantasy desire that too . He minded out of her back with his knees. History told him he could squeeze gold from a black womans wrists. With iron cuffs. Is that why he braided the noose to resemble a lasso . So yeah, im finished now. [laughter] [applause] d. Cdamaris thank you so much fr listening. Ok, so any questions you have to come to the mic. You all should know that one of the people that helped me write this book is here. We have nicole porter, an advocate from the sentencing project here. And her hard work [applause] helped to remind us how many of our citizens are incarcerated and engaged in what is seemingly free labor. Thank you. Hi. Good evening. Talk louder. Good evening. So thank you for your great work. Damaris thank you. I loved how you opened up having us all close our eyes, that was different but i enjoyed it. So two things, if you can expound on the title of your book. So a bound woman is a dangerous thing, so if you can explain how so. Damaris ok. And then secondly, you mention in one of your poems, i dont remember the title, but you mentioned the concept of passing. So, for those of us who dont know what that means, if you can explain what it means. And then, for some of the generations that may not know, then that would provide for somewhat of a History Lesson for them. Damaris yeah, ok, so i will start with racial passing. Apparently, its talking about blackness like this has gone out of style. But when i was younger, i grew up in the ame church and there were lots of people that could pass for white, but were culturally black, and theres no such thing as biologically black, but culturally black, and considered themselves to be African Americans but very much looked white. And so, theyre looking white, and claiming to be white, even if you had african ancestry, provided some benefits in a white supremacist culture. And many people did claim to be white that actually have african ancestry. Like its believed white people in the sout